Monday, April 11, 2011

"Wild Onions" sticks the characters in a unique situation--staggering heat and rolling blackouts--allowing them to explore situations we otherwise wouldn't see them in. The premise of the episode is that crime spikes when there is heat, thus all the officers, including Teresa, must be on hand.

Teresa gets a new driver named Ray, an unmarried Iraq vet who is eager to advance his career. He is especially attentive to his role and seems like a good fit, though he acknowledges the reason why he was chosen--he wasn't wearing a wedding ring.

Jarek and Caleb solve a murder this week, and while Caleb does have a nice moment with the boy whose father was killed, that's pretty much all that happened. Perhaps the greatest development was Vonda and Isaac hooking up after a harrowing incident (although they had been flirting so much before that I'd already assumed they were together)

Gibbons was relatively innocuous this week, helping distribute water to the community, which would be fine if he had no ulterior motives. Of course, he's thinking about votes and is willing to spend a little effort and money to draw in potential voters. And in this way, he's no different than the kids on the street increasing soda prices in times of higher demand. However, if we continue on this purely economic way of thinking, Gibbons completely ignores the numerous negative externalities which makes his actions very harmful.

Liam begins to get deeper and deeper in Gibbons's organization, only to find himself oddly sympathetic to Gibbons, seeing him distribute water. Liam hasn't been completely duped yet like all the other voters, but Gibbons clearly has the gift of connecting with people regardless of motives.